The Bolivar bulletin. [volume] (Bolivar, Hardeman County, Tenn.) 1865-1888, 1887-02-04
The Tariff AMI the South.

4 ne Da1ClUOre mauuIaCLuE6Es
Record has issued an extra sheet.
designed to support the present high
tariff, especially as blessing to the
South. The mansfesto is drawn up
with great adroitness. The Louis
vile Courier had made certain state
ments as to the tariff in increasing
the prices of taxed articles, and there
fore the expense of these articles to
the buyer. The record meets these
statements by exhibiting a list OF
fifty-fve articles, the prices of which
have declined since 1873. The two
papers might cayil for months about
the figures each has put out, but the
inquiry as to whether free trade or
protection is best for the country
would stand still while they were
discussing these details. If the Rec
cord showed that where prices have
declined, that benift to the people
was secured to them by the system
of protection, then it would insure a
triumph for high tariff measures. But
it fails to do that. II 1t showed
that paying on average of 43 per
cent on the vast number of articles
the. tariff includes IN its operations
made those goods cheaper than
they would be without 43 per cent
tax, then it would have accomplished
m UGH; bet this it does not do, I'm
provement Of manufactures, as in
iron and steel; more ready COM
municatrOn from the extension OF
railroads: the recovery of the coun,
from the effects of war; and especial
ly the lowering effect upon prices
of the severe depression we have
su fered. and other influences it is
not necessary to recapitulate, have
lowered the prices of many articles
during the time high tariff has ex~
listed. These declines of price were
not the consequence of high tariff;
they came in spite of high tariff, not
because OF it, This being the case
the Records list of ifty-fve articles
that haveloWered in price, is only
a dispute with the Journal about fig
ures; 1t leaves the free trade and
protection problems just where they
were before. Will the Record I'M
dertake to say that if the a per
cent. tax were removed the taxed
articles would De dearer in conse-
quence? Will 1T say they would
not be cheaperg II it cannot say these
hingswhat do its fifty FIVE rows of
figures amount to, as proof that it is
a blessing TO the South? Will the
record show that, if the tax were Ia
ken off iron cotton ties, it would be
an injury to the cotton planter? Or,
if the tax ON tin plate were removed
it would damage the interests of
the Southern gardener when he cans
his fruits and his vegetables? Before
the tax on, aulnine was removed
that article:sOld in the stores at SO
to So % the ounce bottle. The New
York Drug Reporter, ofJanuary II
quotes the wholesale prices of Amer.
Ican quinine at So to So cents an
ounce, French So to So cents. Can
the Record assert that this great
lowering of price, through the re-
mOyal of the tariff tax, is an impair
ment of the interests of the farmers
who reside in the low, swampy re-
giOns of portions of the SOUTH When
the Record proves that high tariff
makes merchandise cheaper, and the
reduction of the tax makes them
dearsr, its arguments will do what
its ffty-ive rows of deliberately
grouped figures entirely fail to ac'
. complish. The Record Is very adroit
. however, while displayin G its list 0.
articles lower in price now than il
1873; it does not say that they were
cbeapened by the tariff, but the un-
wary reader of the Records extrs
will hardly fail. to regard such al
assertion as implied, and will be